Hingis and Serena have cause for celebration

World number one Martina Hingis and two-time defending champion Serena Williams had reasons to celebrate at the Los Angeles women's Classic on Tuesday even if they were different ones.

Showing few ill-effects after a two-month layoff, Williams made a triumphant return to play, downing Jennifer Hopkins 7-5 6-3 in the second round of the $565,000 tournament.

Earlier, top seed Hingis celebrated her 200th week as the world number one with a hard-earned 6-2 7-5 decision over American Lilia Osterloh.

Williams hadn't played since suffering an upset stomach during a Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to Australian and French Open champion Jennifer Capriati.

However, the hard-hitting fourth seed put on a solid-if-unspectacular display of powerful groundstrokes to go along with nine aces en route to a defeat over her fellow American.

"It didn't feel too good today," said the eighth ranked Williams who used five service breaks to claim the 98-minute victory.

"I've been working really hard in practice but I didn't do the things I've been working on at all. Other than that, it felt good to be out there today and have a tough first round match."

ELITE GROUP

On Monday, the 21-year-old Hingis became the fourth player to join an elite group headed by Germany's Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert of the U.S., to reach the WTA Tour ranking milestone.

"It's nice to have become the fourth player to reach that number," Hingis said. "That's great for me. It's another milestone in my career."

She was happy with her performance on Tuesday.

"I played a good first set, but in the second set I was hitting what she wanted and she got into a groove," Hingis said.

The Swiss fell behind 5-3 in the second set after dropping her serve for the third time in the match.

However, she gathered her composure and reeled off the next four games to notch up a 70-minute victory.

"I didn't want it to go to three sets and that helped motivate me," Hingis said. "It was a very good match and we had some great rallies. I guess I had all the answers at the end of the tie because I wanted it more."

Two other seeds moved into the last 16 while one was eliminated.

Fifth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat edged Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-3 7-6 (7-1) and 15th seed Elena Likhotseva of Russia routed Australian Evie Dominikovic 6-1 6-3 to advance.

However, Australia's Nicole Pratt upset the 14th-seeded Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan 6-4 6-1.

Although Tauziat is ranked ninth in the world, the 33 year-old insists that she will retire at the end of this year following a career that began in 1984.

"I'm not thinking about it because I know it's the end," said Tauziat. "I've had enough.

"This year I am playing for fun and I want to try some different things."

In another match, unseeded Indonesian Wynne Prakusya -- a late replacement for injured Russian star and eighth-seed Anna Kournikova -- caused an upset when she ousted Italy's Rita Grande 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.